PASSINGS: Malcolm Oliver Perry II

Malcolm Oliver Perry II treated President Kennedy after he was shot and also operated on assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Malcolm Oliver Perry II treated President Kennedy after he was shot and also operated on assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. (Associated Press)

Malcolm Oliver Perry II

First surgeon to treat JFK after shooting

Dr. Malcolm Oliver Perry II, 80, who attended to President Kennedy at Parkland Memorial Hospital after he was shot in Dallas, died of lung cancer Saturday in Tyler, Texas, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center announced.

Perry, who was born Sept. 3, 1929, in Allen, Texas, was an assistant professor of surgery at Texas Southwestern and a vascular surgeon at Parkland when he became the first staff surgeon to treat Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.

Perry performed a tracheotomy on Kennedy while other doctors and surgeons gathered to help. Perry and another surgeon then performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Kennedy until no brain activity was detected, and the president was declared dead.

He also was one of the doctors to operate on Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was shot by Jack Ruby two days after Kennedy died.

In 2000, Perry retired as professor emeritus of surgery at Texas Southwestern.